Well... it's always been this way, ever since I was old enough to work. My father is bipolar and can't keep a job, and my mother just... isn't a social enough person to be out there. I can at least pretend. She can't. They both drive people into not liking them at work, and then they quit.

So now my mom stays home and watches the baby (she's one, just this month). My father is running his own business, but it hasn't seen a lot of success.

My sister is twenty-one, she seems to have some sort of learning disability, so working up to her GED is hard, slow going. She's at their mercy here, and I've always been the one who had to protect her from them.

A shrink would probably say this is all terribly co-dependent, but it's more dependent than co-dependent.

All I've ever wanted is out, but having to throw all my money into this place so my family doesn't have to live in a cardboard box keeps me from ever escaping.